It has been more than a few years since flatscreen TV and computer monitors have been out on the market. With the cathode ray tube "thick screen" TVs and monitors essentially out of production for the last couple of years do you still have CRTs in your house or at work and are they in working order? I still have one an "Admiral" in my house that I have had for the last ten or so years that I got from "The Good Guys" it still works well.

"And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by." John Masefield Sea-Fever

At my parents house I think there is one in use CRT monitor (2 just sitting there) and I reckon 5 CRT TV's that work pretty much perfectly (with one I think lying around somewhere). Anything that has stopped working we have gotten rid of and I'm pretty sure the monitors are gonna be taken away soon possibly with one spare lying around just in case.

Quoting 2707200X (Thread starter):With the cathode ray tube "thick screen" TVs and monitors essentially out of production for the last couple of years

Sure about that? I just picked up a used IBM THINKVISION C220P and it's still in production. The crazy thing is that they're asking $1,369.00 ! I picked mines up for only 2000 Thai Baht ($60 USD) last October.
It was made in 2007 and hasn't been used much. The picture quality it perfect. I like the true picture quality of CRTs.

I still have my 19" CRT (iiyama vision master pro 450) bought ten years ago for my first home made computer, it works but is not in its prime, and I don't use it anymore, I got 2*24" LCD panels instead, IPS ones for the good colors and angles they provide. I have another perfectly good 17" CRT that was replaced by a 24" MVA LCD for the family, it's in the garage waiting to find a new home or get recycled.

New Technology is the name we give to stuff that doesn't work yet. Douglas Adams

We have a mixture of LCD/PLASMA and CRT with the old CRT now a 21" TV in our guest room that we have had for about 20 years now and it is still is perfect working order, I have just yesterday set up with a digital receiver in readiness for the analog signal being switched off later this year

Matt
MWHCVT

Must think up a new one soon, slow moving brain trying to get into gear ;)

Yes I have a 36" Sony with the built in DVD and VHS player in the bed room. It has been a great piece of equipment for the past 20 years . It was my main TV for 5 or 6 years ...and its still is good for PS3 / DVD movies etc .

Quoting Aesma (Reply 4):I still have my 19" CRT (iiyama vision master pro 450) bought ten years ago for my first home made computer, it works but is not in its prime

I have a Sony 19" CRT computer monitor (1280x1024 resolution) purchased in the early 90s which also works but whose output is a bit distorted. It gets a bit better as it warms up, but as you say, it's just not in its prime. I keep it hooked up to a backup computer I keep in my guest bedroom. It works well enough for its role, which is usually so guests can check their email.

Quoting MWHCVT (Reply 5):I have just yesterday set up with a digital receiver in readiness for the analog signal being switched off later this year

I gave my 27" Panasonic CRT TV from the early 90s to a friend who tried using it with a digital receiver, but he found he was in a poor location for off-the-air digital broadcasts and could not afford cable TV. So he still has it hooked up to a VCR and a DVD player and uses it from time to time and it still produces a very good picture. He also has a CRT computer monitor as well as an identical one sitting brand new in a box, ready for when the current one craps out.

So, to answer the core question, about four years ago I went from a CRT to a plasma for my main TV, and I don't miss the CRT at all.

As for computers, all my main computers at home and work for at least the last decade are laptops, which of course have LCDs.

Of course the more powerful work computers in the labs and the data centers are not laptops, but they all use virtual KVM (keyboard/video/mouse) setups so they don't have monitors at all. There are still CRTs in the lab area but they spend most of their time turned off. And I still have a Sony 19" CRT monitor in the back part of my office hooked up to a spare PC, but the monitor spends most of its time turned off.

So the only role CRTs have at home and work are on backup/spare devices, just because they still work OK and are bought and paid for.

If I had to get something new, I'd buy a LCD or plasma, because CRTs are just too bulky.

But I tend to keep stuff a long time, so the one CRT in the house will stay there till it craps out or till I have a good reason to get rid of it, then it'll go to the town recycling center, which has no issue with accepting CRTs for disposal.

Inspiration, move me brightly! Light the song with sense and color.Hold away despair, more than this I will not ask.Faced with mysteries dark and vast, statements just seem vain at last.Some rise, some fall, some climb, to get to Terrapin!

I have a 32 inch Sony flatscreen in my living room and a 11 inch Dynex flat screen in my kitchen. The only reason I bought such a pitiful brand for the small one was I couldn't find a Sony that small.

I do have a 1973 Sony 13 inch CRT TV in my garage. I watch it when I am hanging around out there. It works great and I like its classic appeal. I also have a 7 inch Zenith Black and White CRT TV. I don't use that one much, but it is more of a novelty item anyway. It is a the "spirit of 76" model and has the Declaration of Independence and the "signatures" on the sides of it. I picked it up at a church rummage same back in '96, for $5.

I remember my buddy, Gerry, had a 40 inch CRT TV when we were in college. I remember helping him lug that monster up four flights of steps, in the dorms, and back down again at the end of the year.... That Sucked!

I really wanted one of those Sony HD widescreen CRT TVs, that were the last made. I looked into it but it weighed a couple of hundred pounds, if I recall, maybe more. I didn't want to have to lug it home and then have to buy a new piece of furniture to put it on.

Quoting falstaff (Reply 8):I really wanted one of those Sony HD widescreen CRT TVs, that were the last made. I looked into it but it weighed a couple of hundred pounds, if I recall, maybe more. I didn't want to have to lug it home and then have to buy a new piece of furniture to put it on.

Sounds about right, my parents had a 37" Sony CRT and I think it weighed about 120lbs. I know because I left it there for the new owner of the house. With the digital switchover here, it was really just junk.

I've just bought a 40" HDLED Bravia with lots of bells and whistles and I've not had a desktop for ages, I use my MacBook Pro at home and a Dell laptop at work.

I have a 36" Sony Wega XBR tv and have had it for about 10 years now. Working perfectly, great picture quality and yup, it's a CRT. But while some of the new LCD/Plasma screens are nice, why spend money to replace a perfectly good working item? I don't have to be one of those who MUST have the latest gizmo/gadget just because it's the "in" thing to have.

When/if it ever needs service or breaks down, then I'll make a decision on what next.

Well, my computer is a laptop, so it's pretty obvious what type of monitor it has.

As for a television, I've got a Sharp flatscreen. My parents still have a working CRT TV, but it's in a little used spare room. Their main TV is a Sony flatscreen that went into service in 2008 after their CRT went belly up (twice) after only a few years of use.

At work there are probably something in the neighborhood of 2000 PCs, all with flatscreen monitors. The only CRTs in use are two TVs in the breakroom which will probably be replaced sometime in the near future with flatscreens.

Quoting photopilot (Reply 12):I have a 36" Sony Wega XBR tv and have had it for about 10 years now. Working perfectly, great picture quality and yup, it's a CRT. But while some of the new LCD/Plasma screens are nice, why spend money to replace a perfectly good working item?

I agree. It sounds like it's a very good setup.

Quoting photopilot (Reply 12):I don't have to be one of those who MUST have the latest gizmo/gadget just because it's the "in" thing to have.

It took me a long time to take the digital plunge. Before I did, I refused to even have a cable TV box in my house. Then when analog TV was being phased out, I bought a new TiVo that had a built-in digital tuner to replace the analog TiVo, and a plasma TV. I have no plans on replacing either any time soon, although I will probably get the newest gen TiVo and retire the current one to the spare room.

It also took me a very long time to get a phone with a data plan. I just got one in April and am still trying to figure the damn thing out!

Inspiration, move me brightly! Light the song with sense and color.Hold away despair, more than this I will not ask.Faced with mysteries dark and vast, statements just seem vain at last.Some rise, some fall, some climb, to get to Terrapin!

Well, in my room I have a Sony Trinitron from the early 90's- older than I am. Works great; the main television in the house is a flatscreen with all the bells and whistles, but in my room, the CRT works well. I have basic cable in my room; the quality is still great, and I don't use it to watch movies or anything anyway. CNN is what it's always tuned to; and it works flawlessly. (It's also hooked up to one of the original PlayStations, I use that once in a while) I have no need for anything else; I was even offered a (older) flatscreen, but I declined. It really is a great TV...

My current computer is a laptop, but I used to have an older CRT computer, long ago. CRT is fine technology; it works fine, but people don't like it because it's not "the latest thing" with HD and God knows what else. Flatscreen really is not needed.

I have a 20" Panasonic that I bought ~8 years ago when I was in grad school. I'll keep it and use it until it is no longer serviceable or I find myself doing a move that makes it impractical to move. Thankfully it is reasonably light that my weak out of shape ass can move it. If I end up getting a nice new LCD/LED flatscreen I figure the old TV will just move to the bedroom or something.

My brother had a 32" Sony Trinitron Wega that he had bought shortly after he bought his first house 10 years ago. It must have weighed 150 lbs and when he moved from DC to Denver last year the TV didn't move. Not really sure what he did with it. But it was a case of not being worth it to move it type thing, especially when a reasonably priced 37" LCD makes a great replacement.

Stop drop and roll will not save you in hell. --- seen on a church marque in rural Virginia

Viewsonic 20" flat screen for computer monitor and Sony WEGA 36" CRT in the lounge. The picture on the Sony is one of the best I had ever seen and I bought the set in 2004 or so a recent purchase. As long as it doesn't give me any trouble it'll stay there until it gives up. It was quite an expensive set!

Donated my last CRT to my parents 5 years ago, and they replaced it with an LCD last year. CRT computer went 8 years ago, and its replacement has been retired. My work computers went LCD maybe 6 years ago....

Switching to flat screen today is reasonable because decent flat screens can be bought (the cheaper ones are not good, however), but I remember the first computer LCDs in the early 2000s that really launched that switch, on top of being expensive, the image was just horrible. Plasma TVs were better, but then they cost as much as a car (a rich uncle bought one for more than 15000$).

For a perfectionist like me, even today's LCD are disappointing, there is not one computer screen that can satisfy me entirely, even an Eizo at more than 1500$ for a 24". That's why I still had 3 CRT screens on my main computer until 1 year ago, and only changed because they were failing and it was impossible to replace them with new ones. Most computer screen have a TN panel, which means colors are not consistent across the screen, even looking them perfectly straight ; and moving the head, it gets worse. Other main technologies are IPS and VA. VA has great blacks, but is often slow, so it's not good for watching action or playing games, IPS is quicker but blacks are not great. I got with IPS anyway, mostly because I'm accustomed to clear blacks, it's like at the movies. 3* HP ZR24W . Still, better blacks would be great, 120Hz allowing 3D display or smoother movements in games too, but that's not on the table, they're one year old now, and there is not one new competitor on the market. On the contrary, 16/10 screens are disappearing, replaced by stupid 16/9 screens, like if somehow the web or documents were horizontal ! Just look at this forum, half my screen is wasted already.

New Technology is the name we give to stuff that doesn't work yet. Douglas Adams

Quoting Aesma (Reply 22):Switching to flat screen today is reasonable because decent flat screens can be bought (the cheaper ones are not good, however), but I remember the first computer LCDs in the early 2000s that really launched that switch, on top of being expensive, the image was just horrible. Plasma TVs were better, but then they cost as much as a car (a rich uncle bought one for more than 15000$).

Quite correct.

Quoting Aesma (Reply 22):Other main technologies are IPS and VA. VA has great blacks, but is often slow, so it's not good for watching action or playing games, IPS is quicker but blacks are not great. I got with IPS anyway, mostly because I'm accustomed to clear blacks, it's like at the movies. 3* HP ZR24W . Still, better blacks would be great, 120Hz allowing 3D display or smoother movements in games too, but that's not on the table, they're one year old now, and there is not one new competitor on the market.

Inspiration, move me brightly! Light the song with sense and color.Hold away despair, more than this I will not ask.Faced with mysteries dark and vast, statements just seem vain at last.Some rise, some fall, some climb, to get to Terrapin!

I have 2 CRT TV's in the house and they work great (although they are not HD). I might as well NOT spend money to replace something that works well! I had a CRT monitor at work until recently when I needed to split to a 3-screen setup at my desk so I got 2 flat screens to go with my laptop docking station and save some space on my desk.

Quoting Superfly (Reply 3):Sure about that? I just picked up a used IBM THINKVISION C220P and it's still in production. The crazy thing is that they're asking $1,369.00 ! Wow!
I picked mines up for only 2000 Thai Baht ($60 USD) last October.
It was made in 2007 and hasn't been used much. The picture quality it perfect. I like the true picture quality of CRTs.

I was an IBM software engineer in the 80s and they seemed to be in bed with Sony.

Even back then I saw the 30in x 30in flat screens that the air traffic controllers were given and I was just amazed at how cool they were.

I'm glad you picked up on this, just like I picked up on your comment on the Tata's in Bangkok.

So, despite not liking the same cars, we're on the same wavelength, more or less!

Inspiration, move me brightly! Light the song with sense and color.Hold away despair, more than this I will not ask.Faced with mysteries dark and vast, statements just seem vain at last.Some rise, some fall, some climb, to get to Terrapin!

I better guard my CRT monitor like it's a newborn infant.
Back in the US, there are tons of used 21" CRT monitors. It was really hard to find one here in Bangkok. All the computer geek stores I went to said they were too heavy to carry so few people bought them new when they were in vogue.
It's only 84 pounds.

This monitor has 2 separate computer inputs.

Quoting Revelation (Reply 26):So, despite not liking the same cars, we're on the same wavelength, more or less!

I have 2 CRT tvs. One is 13" w/integrated DVD player, other is 19". Both work fine, though I don't have cable so they don't get used much. Since they work and are rarely used, why spend the money to replace.

Of course I am the guy whose last portable media player purchase was 1984 (august) when I bought a Sanyo tape player (walkman type). Still works well - even if it weighs as much as my laptop.

In our home we have two LCDs , one LED, one plasma, and one CRT 27 inch flat screen tube Sony WEGA. I must say the Panasonic 46 inch plasma delivers the best picture despite being older than the same size 46 inch Samsung LCDTV we have.

On delivery from Sears they thoughtfully brought 2 burly Samoans to haul the 235lb monster up and down a few flights of stairs. They brought with them a small dolly and some lifting straps. Less enjoyable was when we donated it to an uncle and we hauled it back out without said hauling equipment. Good times..

I still got a circa 1998 or so Dell branded 21" Trinitron sealed up in the garage in the original packaging. For some reason I decided to save it for posterity sake after the wide screen upgrades. Which makes me kind of wish I saved my '93 or '94 Gateway 2000 ( as it was called ) 15" CrystalScan CRT with the manual video control knobs that came with my old 486dx2 66 VESA bus baby AT (still works I think!).

Quoting lorm (Reply 33):On delivery from Sears they thoughtfully brought 2 burly Samoans to haul the 235lb monster up and down a few flights of stairs. They brought with them a small dolly and some lifting straps.

Now we know what sumo wrestlers do for their day jobs!

No offense to Samoans or sumo wrestlers, that's one awesome sport, and many Samoans excel at it.

Quoting lorm (Reply 33):Less enjoyable was when we donated it to an uncle and we hauled it back out without said hauling equipment. Good times..

LOL! Ya know, u-haul rents these things.

I once had to get a wrecked glider out of the woods. I bought four sets of lifting straps off the 'net and they weren't all that expense, $20 a pair or so, and they worked wonders. In fact, some of the locals asked to keep theirs so they could use them when rescuing fallen hikers.

Quoting lorm (Reply 33):I still got a circa 1998 or so Dell branded 21" Trinitron sealed up in the garage in the original packaging. For some reason I decided to save it for posterity sake after the wide screen upgrades.

Good move.

Quoting lorm (Reply 33):Which makes me kind of wish I saved my '93 or '94 Gateway 2000 ( as it was called ) 15" CrystalScan CRT with the manual video control knobs that came with my old 486dx2 66 VESA bus baby AT (still works I think!).

LOL! Gateway sure sold a lot of those machines. Mine was in a mini-tower, and I loved playing Falcon F16 and Duke Nukem on it! To get F16 to run well, I had to make a boot diskette to load DOS and it's XMM/EMM drivers to access all the memory. The HDD had Windows 3 on it, but that was too much bloat for F16 to deal with.

However I don't miss the CrystalScan CRT very much...

Inspiration, move me brightly! Light the song with sense and color.Hold away despair, more than this I will not ask.Faced with mysteries dark and vast, statements just seem vain at last.Some rise, some fall, some climb, to get to Terrapin!

I just threw out my old 17 year old Toshiba 36 inch CRT, it was such a huge TV and was quite well built until some the buttons stopped working and it wouldn't turn on sometimes. I still have a small 20 inch Toshiba CRT in my room but I replaced the one in the living room with a 46 inch Samsung 3D LEDTV and the picture is so clear its as if they are standing right there! Its got all the features one could want, its practically a computer! I think its the model number is UN46D7000 its amazing and if you are in the market for a new TV you should check it out, the price is a bit much at around $2000 + depending on where you purchase it, but it is definitely beautiful to watch and just as beautiful when its switched off.

Quoting Revelation (Reply 34):No offense to Samoans or sumo wrestlers, that's one awesome sport, and many Samoans excel at it.

Yep athough it's kind of sad that all of the crop of the local Sumo wrestlers with Hawaiian island ties are all retired now. Our island local news used to always have some coverage of them.

Quoting Revelation (Reply 34):LOL! Gateway sure sold a lot of those machines. Mine was in a mini-tower, and I loved playing Falcon F16 and Duke Nukem on it! To get F16 to run well, I had to make a boot diskette to load DOS and it's XMM/EMM drivers to access all the memory. The HDD had Windows 3 on it, but that was too much bloat for F16 to deal with.

I really wanted one of those mini towers but I had to settle on the baby AT model. I believe my Gateway came with a 424 megabyte HD 8 megs of RAM.. Remember Gateway's classic cow themed ads back in the day? It was funny to see all the imitator PC companies that popped up during that decade and often imitated Gateway 2k's ad styling. I want to say Midwest Micro was one of the worst offenders...

A lot of this is OT but whatever, your post made me want to share some of my old stuff. I been recently backing up those old 3.5" floppies from my old FD-81 Sony Mavica and ran into some old disks and I used to rock on my old Gateway...

Never did buy Falcon 1.0 but did buy Falcon 4.0 and found the 300+page manual (remember when games used to come with ones over 50 pages!). I did buy Origin's Strike Commander (by Chris Roberts of Wing Commander fame) however and actually found the original box in great shape with all 8 of the disks, and all the documentation minus the manual - it's floating around in another storage box somewhere. DOS memory management used to be a pain but entertaining when you look back on how fun it was trying to tweak config.sys and autoexec.bat for gaming. 640KB...! Boot disks were hilarious and found a few. I couldn't track down my Flight Sim 1.0, 4.0, 5.0/5.1 floppies but did find some old FS manuals.

Duke 3D was hilarious with all those Bruce Campbell voice quotes. It looks after being vaporware for all those years Duke Nukem Forever is finally going to be released.

Quoting lorm (Reply 37):I really wanted one of those mini towers but I had to settle on the baby AT model. I believe my Gateway came with a 424 megabyte HD 8 megs of RAM..

I had my own business back then and at the end of the year if there was money in the account and if the computer was getting old I'd get a new one. I had a whole series of Gateways back then. I'm thinking that my 486dx2 didn't have that much RAM though.

That's also how I justified the 19 inch Sony CRTs that we had. Actually I still have one upstairs.

Of course, back when "Computer Shopper" and "PC Magazine" were the best places to find computer stuff.

Quoting lorm (Reply 37):Never did buy Falcon 1.0 but did buy Falcon 4.0 and found the 300+page manual (remember when games used to come with ones over 50 pages!). I did buy Origin's Strike Commander (by Chris Roberts of Wing Commander fame) however and actually found the original box in great shape with all 8 of the disks, and all the documentation minus the manual - it's floating around in another storage box somewhere.

Falcon was the only flight sim game I got into back then. It got to the point that I would be scanning the skies for targets as I was driving to customer sites!

Quoting lorm (Reply 37):DOS memory management used to be a pain but entertaining when you look back on how fun it was trying to tweak config.sys and autoexec.bat for gaming. 640KB...! Boot disks were hilarious and found a few. I couldn't track down my Flight Sim 1.0, 4.0, 5.0/5.1 floppies but did find some old FS manuals.

Yes, what joy it was when you could get the game to run with the sound card working too!

Then as the Pentium Pro era came along I built myself a PC with first a Voodoo 1 card then a Voodoo 2 card then two Voodoo 2 cards in SLI mode. God, I can't believe how many different downloads of video drivers, sound drivers and DirectX I did over the 19,2k modem to get all that stuff to work together. My favorite games were Quake and F18 Hornet.

After building out that machine, I never bothered to do another one. The things it had all in one box (Asus MB, dual UltraSCSI drives, sound card, network card, Matrox 2D and Voodoo 3D cards) and their more modern replacements all seem so routine now that it's just not exciting to build out a PC any more for me. OTOH I've kept that machine ever since because it was so much fun to build out. Last time I tried to power it up it didn't do anything but I can't be bothered to debug it but still am not even considering throwing it out since it has so many memories.

So, as you said above, the old stuff was painful but also entertaining. The new stuff, easy but boring. So I get my tech jollies doing stuff people will pay me to do.

Quoting lorm (Reply 37):Duke 3D was hilarious with all those Bruce Campbell voice quotes. It looks after being vaporware for all those years Duke Nukem Forever is finally going to be released.

It's the 787 of the gaming world!

Inspiration, move me brightly! Light the song with sense and color.Hold away despair, more than this I will not ask.Faced with mysteries dark and vast, statements just seem vain at last.Some rise, some fall, some climb, to get to Terrapin!